So tonight I tried the swim plan again. This time the whole thing, all 1600 glorious yards of it. By the end my arms were burning, and I had to work hard to maintain my form, but I held it together and got the whole thing done.
I’ll have to admit, it was the longest swim I have ever done both in terms of yardage and time (nearly an hour). Following the plan was really great as it gave me something to do other than grind out lap after lap. Lots of drills, and a tough but doable core freestyle swim. Usually when I try to do some training laps I end up swimming for a while and moving on. Tonight I focused on the drills, some more than others, and I also focused on breathing. I left the specific drills etc. to the plan, and did the best that I could to work on my stroke accordingly.
About halfway through the main set of freestyle laps I felt like I just couldn’t go on. Assuming that I had pushed myself like that without a plan–which I wouldn’t–I would have stopped for sure at that point. But with the plan in hand I did another 550 yards! That is unheard of for me.
So 1600 yards pushed this to both my highest month and highest week of volume for the year. I just printed out another set of drills for my next trip to the pool. Very excited about that!